Published 6:00 am, Sunday, February 13, 2011

The Plainview Lady Bulldogs ended their regular season with a bit of a revenge win as they defeated Palo Duro, the team that eliminated them from the postseason last year.

At 6 p.m. on Tuesday, the Lady Dogs have an opportunity to exact a bit more revenge when they host The Colony Lady Cougars in their bi-district match-up.

While the Lady Dogs and the Lady Cougars have not stepped on the basketball floor against each other, The Colony was the school that last fall ended the best season the Lady Dog volleyball program ever had.

And it wasn't pretty, either. The Colony won in three games and basically wiped the floor with Plainview.

The seven Lady Dogs who were members of the volleyball team remember that match well.

"We're trying to get revenge on them," said senior guard Brittany Ramirez, the libero on Plainview's volleyball team. "Every time coach (Danny) Wrenn says this is an opportunity to get some revenge, we've always got a comment to say."

The Lady Cougars have four members of their volleyball team on the basketball roster, two of whom are starters.

Wrenn hopes the parallels between this game and the volleyball match don't just end at the coincidental opening-round match-up.

"We hope the scenario will play out," Wrenn said, ". . . they beat us in volleyball, and they went on to the state tournament. So, we figure let's turn that around and beat them in basketball and go to the state tournament."

And the parallels keep going.

Assistant girls basketball coach Amy Hagerman pointed out the Lady Dogs have begun every major section of their season in the DogHouse, and so far the results have been pretty good.

The Lady Dogs opened the season against Pampa with a 86-11 blowout at home. They went on to win seven straight games before losing in the championship of the American Bank of Texas Tournament in Marble Falls to then No. 3-ranked Cedar Park 57-45.

After winning the remainder of their non-district schedule, Plainview opened District 3-4A in the DogHouse with an 82-37 thrashing of Dumas and took its win streak to 15 before losing to Canyon.

Now, the Lady Dogs - thanks to winning the right to host the game in a zip code contest (conducted over the phone instead of an actual coin flip) - plan on starting another long run at the DogHouse, one they hope ends in Austin.

"We feel like we're prepared for the playoffs with the district we're in," Wrenn said. "We've played so many good teams. . . . I feel like we're prepared for a long playoff run."

Of the Lady Dogs' opponents, Wrenn said The Colony reminds him of a more sizable Palo Duro squad.

Wrenn said the Lady Cougars' speed is very similar to PD, but The Colony has more height than the Lady Dons.

The Colony's biggest threat is No. 23 Ashlee Ferguson, who Wrenn said can "really fill it up.

"They are big team; they're an athletic team," he said. "They've got a big-time scorer in Ferguson, and they are just a team that concerns you because of their athleticism."

One of The Colony's star volleyball players, 6-foot-2 Stacy Koch, is the starting post who will be able to match up with the Lady Dogs' big posts who have generated lots of favorable mismatches for Plainview.

Wrenn feels if the Lady Dogs continue to play the high-level of defense they've displayed in the last few weeks and continue to crash the boards, Plainview will be on its way to fulfilling all the promising parallels Tuesday night holds.